Man, 21, fatally shot by police in North Baltimore

A Baltimore Police officer fatally shot a knife-wielding man after responding to a family disturbance in North Baltimore, officials said Tuesday, the first police shooting since the department implemented new rules governing the investigation of such incidents.

The victim was identified as Sheron Carter Jackson, 21, who lived in the 2500 block of W. Coldspring Lane, where the shooting took place. Anthony Guglielmi, the Police Department's chief spokesman, said police were called to a home at about 9:40 a.m. Tuesday when an individual with a weapon was "about to do something crazy."

As an officer approached the home's front door, police said, Jackson walked outside displaying a "knife-like object" later determined to be a folding knife. Guglielmi said Jackson was shot multiple times after a "confrontation" with the officer and was pronounced dead at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

Jackson's only prior brushes with law enforcement appeared to be a 2009 charge for possessing a dangerous weapon on school property in Baltimore County, court records show. Police said the circumstances surrounding Tuesday's 911 call to the home were being sorted out.

The officer was suspended as a matter of routine pending the investigation but was not identified in accordance with a department policy that gives police 48 hours to release the officer's name.

The Police Department recently adopted new general orders for police-involved shootings, following recommendations from the independent commission that investigated the Select Lounge shooting that killed Officer William Torbit Jr. in January 2011.

The new rules require police to form a "team with representatives from different units of the department" to respond to all police-involved shootings, including the homicide section supervisor, the internal investigations division supervisor, the training academy's firearms supervisor, crime lab, and public affairs.

The Select Lounge commission had been particularly critical of the department's policy of waiting until homicide detectives and prosecutors conclude investigations before launching internal reviews of police-involved shootings.

Part of the reason is that officers who shoot someone are automatically subject to a criminal investigation, and can't be compelled to give statements that might incriminate them.

Under the new rules, the Police Department will seek voluntary statements from officers within 30 days of a shooting. If an officer refuses, the department can compel a statement but cannot share it with detectives. It can be used only for commanders to study the incident, and within 45 days, the chief of the criminal investigation division is now required to submit a comprehensive summary report of the shooting to the police commissioner.

Authorities also have pledged better tracking of statistics and trends in police shootings, which have been declining since 31 people were shot or killed by police in 2007.

July has seen more than 40 homicides so far, making it the second month in 2015 that homicides in Baltimore city have risen above 40. Homicides are also up across the board since 2014. See our homicide map here for a deeper dive into the data. Data accurate as of July 29, 2015 Months with more...

In 2015, Baltimore has seen two months with more than 40 homicides in a single-year period since the 1970s when the city's population was around 300,000 more residents, or during the 1990s when the number of homicides peaked at 353 murders.

May has seen 42 homicides so far, making it Baltimore's deadliest month since 1972. Shootings this month have more than doubled compared to May 2014. Meanwhile, arrests have plummeted since April's unrest in Baltimore, with only 1,177 people arrested so far in May compared to 3,801 in the same...